


Always Have Your Back

by givemeunicorns



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Episode: s03e06 Motel California, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-22 01:01:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/givemeunicorns/pseuds/givemeunicorns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny and Jackson are best friends. The kind of friends who don't just let each other die and come back with out asking a few questions. The kind of friends you can trust to tell you're a werewolf. The kind of friends that show concern when one starts dating another creature of the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Have Your Back

**Author's Note:**

> prompt fill from my tumblr(sitdowngreenburg.tumblr.com)
> 
> This is actually a fusion of two prompt fills: one asking about a head canon I have, that after the table saw, ethan went back to danny, who proceeded to offer comfort cuddles. and another that asked about a werewolf related conversation between jackson and danny. So here you go :D
> 
> Disclaimer: i don't own teen wolf.

            He knew it shouldn’t bother him. Ethan had said that there was something going on at home. But there had been a look on Ethan’s face when he left, like he was scared of something. No, not scared. Terrified.

            Danny gnawed at the inside of his lip and went back to his physic’s homework.

            His phone buzzed against his thigh and he smiled when he saw Jackson’s number on the screen.

            “Hey there American werewolf in London. How’s life?”

            Jackson snorted on the other end of the line.

            “That joke's getting old.”

            “Lie. That joke will never get old.”

            “Whatever,” Jackson shot back in his customary cool sarcasm and Danny felt the sharp pang of longing in his chest again. He and Jackson had been the best of friends since he’d moved to town in grade school. It wasn’t like Danny didn’t have other friends, everyone liked him, but Jackson was his _best_ friend, “So how was the meet?”

            “It’s been postponed because of storms, I guess. So we’re hauled up in some creepy ass motel until morning.”

            “Ew. On a scale from Psycho to Shining, how bad is it?”

            “Hotel California bad, man.”

            “That bites,” Jackson offered and Danny can hear the smile in his voice as he made breakfast in the kitchen of his ridiculously expensive London apartment.

            “Tell me about it. The rooms have shag carpet.”           

             Danny shifted, open shirt brushing the reddened spot along his shoulder and he smiled, remembering how good Ethan’s lips felt against his skin.

            "That's disgusting," Jackson snorted, "Please tell me it's not some god awful combination of orange and brown?" 

            “…It’s not too bad I guess. I mean it’s only for a night.”

            Danny heard Jackson stop what he was doing on the other end of the line.

            “You’re rooming with the suspected-wolf, aren’t you? Please god, tell me you two finally banged so can stop mooning over him. No pun intended.”

            “Maybe.”

            “Maybe he’s staying with you or maybe you screwed him?”

            Danny let out a snort, falling back against the pillows.”

            “Yes, he staying with me. No we didn’t fuck”

_Yet_ Danny amended in his brain.

            He could almost hear Jackson cocky grin on the other end of the line.

            “But…”

            “We may have made out.”

            “How did _that_ go?”

            “Pretty damn well, I think.”

            _Except for him running out in a panic._

            “And you didn’t go for the gold? I thought I taught you better, Danny.”

            He almost laughed but then the image of Ethan, white as a sheet and pulling away flashed in front of his eyes ad suddenly it didn’t seem so funny any more.  
            “What happened?” Jackson asked, mirth gone from his voice, “Did he have like a gay panic or something? Danny, did he say something to you?”

            Jackson had always been good at reading his silences; the bite had only made him better at, with all the freaky super hearing.

            “No, nothing like that. I mean, he’s totally cool with his gayness, trust me. But he like, he all the sudden just went white and pulled away. It was like he’d seen a ghost. I am hoping it’s just because he’s got a someone close to him that’s not doing well. I’m not glad for it or anything, I just, I would rather it be that than more of this supernatural weirdness.”

            “I wouldn’t hold out for that dude. You are part of the freak club now, be association. Does McCall know that you know?”

            Danny ran a hand through his hair.

            “I don’t think so. I haven’t said anything to them. I’m not sure I want to. Lahey has something against Ethan and his brother and I would just as soon not be involved. I think Lydia knows though.”

            He didn’t mention she was hooking up with Ethan’s twin. Still there was silence on the other line for a long moment.

            “How she’s doing?”

            Danny fiddled with his pen. He wanted to tell Jackson about the murders, about Lydia weirdly showing up in band the day before they’d found the band director’s body. But at the same time, he was still Lydia’s friend. It wasn’t his place to tell her ex about her damage.

            “She’s okay, I think. She misses you, but we all do. Allison ended up coming back so I think that helps,” it wasn’t a lie, so he hoped that Jackson would by it.

            There was a long silence between them before Jackson spoke again.

            “Sounds like you’re boyfriend’s on his way back,” he said, “Be careful, okay?”

            “Always am.”

            “I’m serious Danny. If this guy is a werewolf, then he’s dangerous by default. Watch your back.”

            Danny nodded, trying to quell the hot surge of resentment that flared in his chest. He’d always had Jackson’s back, and Jackson had always had his. Then Jackson had made some stupid choices, choices that had gotten people killed. Choices that had gotten _him_ killed.

            “I will,” Danny replied, hearing the tumbler’s turning in the lock as the other end of the line cut off.

            Ethan slipped in the door, head down, as if he wanted nothing more in the world than to disappear into the hideous carpet. He looked nothing short of wrecked, skin chalky and hands shaking while he fumbled with the chain lock.

            Danny bit the inside of his lip, not quite sure what to do. Part of him wanted to stand up, cross the room, and wrap himself around Ethan until the other boy stopped trembling. But the other part of his brain reminded him that that touch might not be welcome.

            “I’m sorry,” Ethan whispered into the empty space between them.

            That felt like a knife in the heart. He liked this boy, more than he had allowed himself to like someone in a long time. Danny didn’t like seeing people hurt at the best of times. This was infinitely worse.

            “Don’t be,” he replied, “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

            Ethan didn’t lift his gaze from his shoes, just nodded head and slipped into the bathroom. He heaved a heavy sigh. He knew what it was like to lose someone, the kind of emptiness it let in you. All he could do now was be there for Ethan. So he pulled his math book back into his lap and went back to his calculations.

            The sound of running water filled the silence, so long that Danny let out a sigh of relief when he heard the shower cut off.

            Ethan came back in only a pair of black sweats and looking no less shaken than he had when he went in.

            “Do you mind,” he asked, almost sheepishly, eyeing Danny’s books, “I think I’m just going to grab some sleep.”

            “Of course,” Danny said with a strained smile, grabbing his stuff and scooting to the far end of the bed, letting Ethan crawl under the covers.

            But the other’s boy’s strained breathing, the white knuckled grip he kept on the blanket was always in the corner of Danny’s vision and it killed him, being so close and not doing anything. He heaved a heavy sigh closing his books and settling on the floor, before slipping beneath the covers himself, reaching up just long enough to flip off the light. There was space between them, a barrier if Ethan needed it, but one it wouldn’t take much to close, if he needed that instead.

            “Are you okay?” Danny asked into the dark, knowing it was a stupid question, because Ethan was obviously ten different kinds of _not_ okay. But sometimes it still needed asked, if only to remind the other person they were cared for.

            “No,” Ethan said after a long moment, the word coming out choked in a way that made Danny’s throat close.

            “Is this okay? Or do you need me to leave? I could room with Lydia. It wouldn’t be a big deal, if you need some space or…”

            Danny didn’t even get to finish the thought before Ethan was shifting, reaching for him, pulling himself into Danny’s chest and holding on tight.  Danny let his own arms wrap around Ethan’s shoulders, trailing his hands along the curve of the other boys spine.

            “Please don’t,” Ethan breathed into the curve of Danny’s neck, “I don’t want to be alone in this place.”

            “You’re safe. I’ve you. I have you're back. I’m not going anywhere,” Danny said, in that calm tone he’d learned to adopt with people in distress, like gentling an animal. Jackson and Lydia may have been the king and queen during school hours but Danny saw the parts of them they couldn’t show to anyone else. That Ethan trusted Danny like that too, that felt good. Now if he could just trust him with the truth.

            Danny could feel Ethan unwinding under his hands; coming down from whatever height he’d been driven to when he’d left the room. His breathing evened but his grip never loosened and Danny fell asleep, the werewolf tucked tight into the corners of his body.


End file.
